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Nothing But ‘Net – Week #03 – 11/16/2015 – Easy Opener

The (#25) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played one game last week, and they won it handily. Of course, it was at home against a Division II team, but still. Wins are wins. On Friday (11/13/2015), UM defeated Northern Michigan 70-44. Michigan’s record is now 1-0.

Michigan looked a little sloppy and lethargic in the 1st half, and only led by10 (36-26) at halftime. They opened the 2nd half with a 12-2 run to make it a 20-point lead, and that was the ballgame. The lead got as high as 29 (70-41), before NMU hit a 3-pointer in the last minute to make it a 26 point game.

Stats

The stats look like you would expect: Michigan played pretty well, but a little ragged at times. UM shot pretty well overall (27-for-52 = 51.9%), but not so well from 3-point range (6-for-16 = 37.5%). They didn’t shoot very many free throws, but most of them went in (10-for-15 = 66.7%). They tied in the rebounding battle (32-32) and won the turnover battle (12-19). Both of those last 2 stats are a little troubling: Michigan is a much taller team than NMU, and they should have won the rebounding battle, and 12 turnovers for UM is worrisome.

Individually, Coach Beilein went with the same starting lineup as in the exhibition game: Kameron Chatman, Aubrey Dawkins, Mark Donnal, Caris LeVert, and Derrick Walton Jr. Only LeVert (18 points) and Dawkins (15 points) hit double figures. The other 3 starters had 6 (Chatman), 6 (Donnal), and 4 (Walton) points. Eh. LeVert and Dawkins looked like they came to play, but the rest of the team didn’t play with much enthusiasm.

The bench chipped in a few points: Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman had 5 points, Spike Albrecht had 7, Ricky Doyle had 2, Duncan Robinson played but didn’t score, Moritz Wagner had 2 points, and DJ Wilson had 5, including a nice 3-pointer. Zak Irvin is still recuperating from pre-season back surgery, so he didn’t play.

There was some question about whether or not Wagner would be redshirted this season, but Beilein left it up to him, and he wanted to play, so he did. He looked OK out there, but he still obviously needs some work. I wouldn’t be surprised if he contributes some important minutes as the season goes on, and he could be a factor down the stretch.

This Week

This week, Michigan plays two games, both in Crisler Arena. On Monday (11/16/2015, 7:00 p.m., ESPN3), they play Elon in the “mainland game” of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, then on Friday (11/20/2015, 9:00 p.m., BTN), they play Xavier in the inaugural Gavitt Games.

The Elon game should be interesting, since Elon has 5 players who are 6’8″ or taller. Michigan had a decided height advantage against LeMoyne (exhibition) and NMU, and they still had trouble on the boards. Elon could be a challenge. Even though this game is considered part of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, Michigan will play in the “championship” phase of the tournament in the Bahamas next week regardless of whether they beat Elon or not. That’s just the way it goes with these “destination” tournaments.

The Gavitt Games are the Big East/Big Ten challenge. Xavier is probably the best non-conference opponent that UM will face at home this season. This game will also be a challenge. We should know a lot more about this season’s UM team by this time next week.

Come on down to Crisler Arena to see how they do.

Go Blue!

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M FOOTBALL 2015: MICHIGAN WOLVERINES DISPATCH RUTGER’S SCARLET KNIGHTS 49 TO 16 IN JAKE RUDOCK’S FINEST PERFORMANCE AS A WOLVERINE

The Scarlet Knights blew into M Stadium Saturday riding the ill wind of a 48-10 loss to the Badgers of Wisconsin, an earlier one TD loss to the Spartans, a blow-out loss to the Scarlet and Gray, and Penn State got 28 on them for another loss, and so on this season.

So far it had been a rough Big Ten season for the Knights. Their armor was dented and pierced prior to Saturday’s trip to Michigan Stadium and they suffered more dents Saturday. Even so, their return game was certainly not rusty.

Saturday the Wolverines won the joust as Jake Rudock had his best day as a Wolverine. He was 18 of 25 for 377-yards and 2 TDs.  He seemed in tune with his receivers, and was poised.  He consistently fed the ball in there with precision.

Even though the Knights had trounced a Hoosier scoring machine (sans defense) by a couple of points in Hoosier land 55-52, Rutgers Head Football Coach, Kyle Flood, who had been suspended for cheating previously, had to be desperate to shore up the dam against the flood waters that are trying to deep six his regime. A Michigan tsunami flooded Rutgers.

The Knights had a sometimes explosive offense, three good running backs, and some great receivers.

Unfortunately for them, they also had the second worst defense in the Big Ten, and their best offensive player, WR Leonte Carroo did not play due to injury. He has missed about half of this season’s games this season because of injuries and discipline. The explosiveness of Rutgers did come within 7 of beating then unbeaten MSU.

It seemed that the Wolverine’s defensive backfield had learned from the sometimes poor effort that they displayed against the Gophers.

That that effort was poor was indicated by Secondary Coach Zordich in a prior interview, who said that the back end of the defense (the DB’s) did not play aggressively, or well in the Minnesota game. Against the Knights, that was remedied.

Those DB feet, hands, and eyes got coached up this week. Aggressive, they held Rutgers to 95-net yards passing on 11 completions in 27 attempts. Even well into the second quarter, Rutgers had not a single pass completion yard.

The same could not be said regarding the Wolverines problematic kick return coverage. Knight return man Janarion Grant ran 4 kick returns for 155-yards, including a stunning 98-yard TD. He also had a 67-yard punt return.

Several things energized the Wolverines, not the least of which was Harbaugh, who was incensed by half time tunnel talk in which the Knights said that they were game finishers, blah, blah, etc.  Jabrill Peppers mentioned trash talk in a post-game interview. Some Rutgers players were ignited by their late first half field goal.

Harbaugh apparently lit a fire under his team for the second half as they came out roaring. It was interesting JH went for a two point conversion after the first M TD of the half to drive the score from 35-16 to 42-16. Post-game, he cited “percentages”, and the venerable two point authorization chart as justification. Hmm. Could be.

Whatever the reason, more than one player cited Harbaugh’s fury at the half over two calls and the trash talking. One call was an overturned targeting call. This is the third such (targeting) call that has not gone the Wolverines way.

The other was an unsportsmanlike penalty, or “intention to deceive call”. Jake Butt with no intention of going off the field or to deceive, inadvertently trailed the players going off the field, but lined up. Noting the open receiver, Jake Rudock did what he was taught to do, toss to the open receiver. Harbaugh said he was “offended” by this call.

More incentive was that Rutgers came into the friendly confines of Michigan Stadium owning a winning record against the Wolverines. The Wolverines had never beaten them, and the Wolverines loss to them last year constituted another very low point for the last year’s team. I had not forgotten that Janarion Grant provided the FG block that provided the misery of defeat for last year’s Wolverines.  He burned them again Saturday.

Last year’s team did not have this year’s Jabrill Peppers advantage. Earlier, Coach Zordich recently had indicated that the coaches had to do a better job of getting him (Jabrill) into position, and he had to make the plays, noting his near interception against the Gophers.

While not an interception he had an outstanding TD run. It was rumored that Jabrill was somewhat dinged, and Jourdan Lewis supplied two kick returns for 59-yards with a long of 35. He likes to have the ball in his hands and ran well. Jabrill gave no indication of being dinged in the TD run, and had, overall, a very good outing.

Lewis also set a M record for pass break ups, eclipsing the former record of 18 by one in bettering Marlon Jackson and Leon Hall.

Peppers has reinforced his stature as Michigan’s best player this season. He is becoming a legend at Michigan. Ninety-two plays against the Gophers on offense, defense and special teams was a remarkable performance. And while he shared the load some with Jordan Lewis on kick returns Saturday, he had that outstanding 18-yard TD run after a lateral on what looked like it was going to become a wheel route, but was cut up field. This was as nifty a run as you will ever hope to see as he made tacklers miss. The usually more restrained Harbaugh was justifiably effusive in his post-game praise for both Jordan Lewis and Jabril Peppers.

The Wolverines received to start the game and botched the first play. What was called a fumble on the field, was the result of an awkward Rudock attempt to push the ball to Drake Johnson. The call was fortunately reversed and considered an incompletion. Then a ten play drive resulted in nothing as Kenny Allen missed a 37-yard field goal wide left.

FB Sione Houma got it started for the Wolverines with a 32-yard catch and run to the Rutgers 14, and Chesson caught a 13-yard TD for the Wolverines first points of the game. M-7, R-0.

Rutgers answered with a FG, but the Wolverines pushed in another score on with Jake Butt contributing to the drive by catching one for 20-yards. Butt was the Wolverines leading receiver with four catches for 102-yards.

The just recovered from injury Jake Ruddock ran it into the corner of the end zone, catching the pylon, on a play characterized afterwards by Harbaugh as Rudock exhibiting toughness. Harbaugh’s comment “As tough as a two dollar steak” fit Jake on this play and.  M-14, R-3.

The Wolverines got another first half TD to start the second quarter. Jake Butt had catches for 17 and nine yards and Jabril Peppers took it from there on a remarkable 18-yard scamper for 6. Seemingly trapped, he escaped and speedily made a beeline to score. Harbaugh lauded his remarkable ability after the game saying he did not know there was another rung to that (Peppers talent) ladder. M-21, R-3.

Rutger’s talented returner, Janarion Grant then took the ensuing KO 98-yards for Rutgers first score. He had two long TDs in previous games this season. It was M-21, R-10.

Drake Johnson made a nice run to score from the one, after a beautiful catch of twenty by Armara Darboh. M-28, R-10.

Rutgers then hit a 29-yard FG after a holding call on Jabrill, and it became M-28, R-13. The Knights kept hanging in there.

Dymonte Thomas provided the spark for the next Wolverine TD with a 28-yard return to the Rutgers forty. The Wolverines piled their score to 35 after an 8-yard Darboh end zone catch. Jake Rudock was on.

A pass interference penalty on Stribling preceded a Jarod Wilson interception at the M 15. This over the shoulder catch in traffic was an outstanding play by Wilson. Then happened the “unsportsmanlike” penalty. Coach Harbaugh and the Michigan crowd were understandably upset.

A 67-yard Janarion Grant punt return preceded another Rutger’s FG of 27-yards.

The Scarlet Knights brayed about that FG in the tunnel. The half ended at M-35, R-16.

The Wolverines kicked to start the second half, and came out energized. A personal foul on Rutgers was applied to better M’s good field position at the 50. A Chris Wormley 12-yard sack aggravated Rutgers problems and they punted to the put the ball at the M 40.

A 56-yard Jake to Jake pass took it the Rutgers 4. De’Veon Smith hammered it home. M-43, R-16.

M converted two FGs by Kenny Allen, and it was finally 49-16.

The Wolverines kept their foot on the gas in the second half offensively and defensively.

While individual football games have an ebb and flow of their own, this one seemed long.

Most fans are pretty consistent in what they want.

Some simply want their team to catch the opposing whippersnappers and belt them into an appreciation of the moral beauty of being Michigan, preferably while winning. Not always is this desired result an easy accomplishment.

What the coaches want is improvement in all aspects of the game weekly, preferably while winning. Nor is this always an easy accomplishment.

This was a hard hitting game for some of three quarters, with the Knights doing just enough to hang in there for a half or more. When you hit FGs instead of TDs, or don’t score during a half, it is hard to win.

Michigan’s defense held the Knights to 128 net yards rushing, and 97 passing. Chris Wormley had two sacks, and the two middle LBs, Bolden and Morgan, had 15 tackles (solos and assists) between them.

The Wolverines are still a work in progress, but you can see improvement each week, and they now are getting ready to face the aerial fireworks of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Go Blue!


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Nothing But ‘Net – Week #02 – 11/08/2015 – First Glance

The (#25) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played one game last week, and they won it handily. Of course, it was an exhibition game against a Division II team, but still. Wins are wins. On Friday (11/06/2015), UM defeated Le Moyne 74-52 in Crisler Arena.

Since it was an exhibition, Coach Beilein got to play almost everyone, and he got to try lots of different lineup combinations. After a few close minutes at the beginning of the game, UM pulled ahead for good, and the outcome of the game was never in question. In general, the Michigan players looked rusty, and they didn’t shoot particularly well, so the game was closer than it should have been.

Stats

The stats look like you would expect: Michigan played pretty well, but a little ragged at times. UM shot pretty well overall (29-for-58 = 50.0%), but not so well from 3-point range (10-for-31 = 32.3%). They didn’t shoot very many free throws, but most of them went in (6-for-9 = 66.7%). They won the rebounding battle (39-28) and the turnover battle (8-9). Those are reasonable stats for an exhibition game against an overmatched opponent.

Individually, this season we’re going to expect to see most of the scoring done by “the core four”, as Beilein calls them: Spike Albrecht, Zak Irvin, Caris LeVert, and Derrick Walton Jr. Irvin is still recuperating from pre-season back surgery, so he didn’t play. Albrecht played sparingly, and only took (and made) one shot, a 3-pointer from the corner, so he only scored 3 points. The other 2 “core four” players did pretty well: LeVert led all scorers with 22 points (including 4-for-9 from 3-point range), and Walton had 13 points. The only other player in double figures was the new transfer player from Division III Williams College, Duncan Robinson, with 15 points, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range. He looked pretty good out there.

LeVert and Walton started, along with Kameron Chatman, Aubrey Dawkins, and Mark Donnal. They didn’t score much. Chatman had 1 point, Dawkins had 2 points, and Donnal had 6 points. Chatman took, and missed, two 3-pointers. Dawkins took, and missed, four 3-pointers. Donnal took, and missed, one 3-pointer. It was sad.

Among the bench players, we’ve already looked at Albrecht and Robinson, and no one else really contributed much. Ricky Doyle had 2 points, Moritz Wagner had 4 points, and DJ Wilson had 6 points (but was 0-for-4 shooting 3-pointers). Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and Brent Hibbitts both played but failed to score.

As I mentioned, almost everyone played. The only healthy players who didn’t get in were Andrew Dakich and Sean Lonergan. They are both hoping to redshirt this season, and I just learned that only freshmen can play in exhibition games and still redshirt. Since Dakich and Lonergan are both juniors, they would have used up a year of eligibility if they had played in the exhibition game.

This Week

This week, Michigan only plays one game, in Crisler Arena vs. Northern Michigan, on Friday (11/13/2015) at 7:00 p.m. Of course, Michigan will be heavily favored, and it would be a huge upset if they lost. I expect them to win handily, and get another chance to experiment with different lineup combinations.

Come on down to Crisler Arena to see how they do.

Go Blue!